On December 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress Party during a heated debate in the Lok Sabha on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Indian Constitution.
- PM Modi made reference to actions taken by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as examples of the Congress’s alleged attempts to disrespect the constitution. In his address, PM Modi said that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had expressed a willingness to change the Constitution if it posed a “hindrance.” He accused Nehru, who was not even the elected Prime Minister of the country, of insulting the Constitution makers and doing a sin. He said that the then President Dr Rajendra Prasad had advised Nehru of not amending the Constitution, but Nehru, ran his own Constitution.
He continued his sharp attack on the party and said that Rajiv Gandhi dealt big blow to Constitution by overturning SC relief to Shah Bano, supported extremist forces. “When Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha was turned down, she imposed Emergency to save her position in 1975. She also changed the constitution to retrospectively secure the positions of President and others from judicial challenge,” said Modi. “Indira Gandhi also ensured that Justice Khanna, who gave the order against her election, is not made the CJI.”
He continued,” In six decades, the Constitution was changed 75 times. The seed that was planted by the first PM was taken care of by another PM Ms. Indira Gandhi,” he said while also accusing Indira Gandhi of controlling the judiciary by amending the Constitution to concentrate power in the hands of Parliament. The Prime Minister alleged that this tendency to alter the Constitution became a hallmark of Congress governance over the decades. “Congress got addicted to this habit of changing the Constitution, and they repeated this again and again,” he said. PM also highlighted the frequency of amendments to the Constitution during Congress rule.
